Monday, July 21, 2014

Playlist

Mountains of acquired skills and rehearsal time behind them and what they give us is this? I listened twice just to be sure, but I came away both times feeling cleverly abused.

July 15, 2014

Folk Songs - Eric Mandat - Eric Mandat

Eric Mandat

A basic impulse of Eric's use of extended techniques in these pieces is to provide an accompaniment to the main thread. The sounds and rhythmic-dynamic textures created tend to form two distinct hierarchic roles. It is this as much as anything that gives them such a solid folky core. I love the way all the parts of the flamenco dance coalesce at the end into a very angry hornet.

July 17, 2014

Tin Machine II - Tin Machine

As Tin Machine Bowie attempts, essentially, to reinvent himself as himself. Hints of '70s Lennon and '60s Barrett linger on the tongue.

And here is the reason this blog is two days late: we were out of town. Sunday morning I got up just after 6 and walked from our hotel to the edge of a slough on the side of the Yakima River and recorded 40 minutes of birds. I saw a hummingbird, a heron, and innumerable swallows. A little sandpiper thought I was there just to record her. She kept coming back to teeeeeept for her fans. A hawk flew over high up with a snake dangling from its talons. A jay of some ilk or other complained about something in the last few minutes.